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E. N. DIOKERSON. CHARGING AND VDISOHARGING SECONDARY BATTERIES.

No. 565,727. PatentedAug. 11, 1896.

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Patented Augfll, 1896.

E. N DlOKERS'oN.

(No Model.)

CHARGING AND DISGHARGING SECONDARY BATTERIES. No. 565,727.

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(No Model.)

B. N. DIOKERSON. CHARGING AND DISGHARGING SEOONDARY'BATTER-IES. No; 565,727.

Patented Aug. 1 1, 1896.

. v. R R :QF m hWHFH INVENTOR UNIT-ran STA PATENT ()FF CE. j

lfilfiVARll'X. DICKERSON, OF NElV' YORKN. Y.

CHARGING AND DISCHARGING SECONDARY'BATTERlE S SPECIFICATION forming art of Letters Patent No. 565,727, dated August 11, 'isee.

Application filed May 26. 1892. Serial No. 434,449. (No model.

'1'! u// 11']: m1 it may cone-(Ira:

In it known that I, EDWARD N.D1ck1snsox, ol' the city, county, and State of New York, have inventedv anew and useful Improvement in .-\pparatus for Charging and Disclmrging Secondary Batteries, of which the l'ullmving is a full, true, and exact dc'scri'p lion, reference. being had to the accompany ing drawings.

This invention relates toan improvement in process and apparatus for alternately charging and discharging a secondar battery, and of changing the connections from multiple to series as the same may be required for that purpose; and it consists, further, in combining a thermopile or source of electricity operated by heat, as, for instance, gas, with electrical control from the secondary battery, whereby the said thermal source of electricity shall be put in operation whenever required by the battery for the purpose of chargin".

It will be obvious that part of my invention is applicable to any source of electricity, whet-her thermal or otherwise; but it is espeeially applicable to a source of electricity like a thermopile, in which the current is of low tension but high voltage.

The general result of my invention when applied to such a combination is that the secondary battery is charged in multiple or parallel circuit whenever it reaches a certainpoint of discharge, which simultaneously puts the thermal source of electricity into operaaview of the connections where one thermobattery is used to charge two secondary'batteries. Fig. drepresents an elevation, on a larger scale, of the apparatus shown in Fig. 4; and Fig. 7, a plan view of the connections when a single thermopile is used to charge two secondary batteries.

'. 4, a side elevation of the same; and Fig. 5 represents In my drawings, 1 represents the secondary battery the lmttcry-circu it-controlling switch operated by two axial magnets A and B; F, the thermopile put in operation, as

shown, by gas-flames from burner (i, so arranged as to light one from the other.

small lighting jet N may be'employed to light the gas 111 burner-G when the same is turned on. The gas-control magnet is shown at J It and the"switch-control magnet at'K. drawings are intended, however, only as general representations of the apparatus em.-

ployed, the details of such structm'es being: well known, as, for instance, the gas-control magnet .i ll, preferable to be used, would be one of the step-by-step automatic cut-out magnets simultaneously turning on and lighting the gas, of theigeneral type patented to E. It. Bean, June l, 1869, No. 90,629.

The secondary battery may be of any kind;

The-

but I prefer that'patc'nted to Isaiah L. Rob- I erts (reissued Letters Patent) on the 20th day of April, 1892, No. 11,238, because the current of discharge from this battery is -very steady until the same is almost discharged, when it.

drops suddenly, while atthe same time, when charged, the voltage rises suddenly at the time when the batteryis fully charged.

The battery-control switch (1 is movable upon abase D, which carries. certain fixed electrical connections, the movable part 0 likewisecarrying certain electrical movable connections forthe purpose hereinafter to be described,

, As shown ln'l ig. 1, the magnet A has last operated, drawingthc switch (3 against the stop M, and the battery is-in process .of chargin The current of electricity for-charging the l battery is derived from the thermopile F, flowing by the wires 4!) 50. The positive ourrentfpasses by the wheat) to the connections 25 26, which represent spring connections moving upon fixed plates in the frame of the switch. By the spring 25 the current passes to the plate 24, the wire 41, and so to the first positive plate of the battery 1. By the spring 26 the current passes to the plate '62, to the wire 45, to the'sccond positive plate, and by the same'plate 6-3 to the spring 31, to the spring 32, through the plate 30'and wire 46" to the third positive pole of the battery.

It will of course be "understoodthat the am'e principle is applied to charging any number of plates or poles which may be deiiled.

.The negative'current from the thermopile passesby wire 49 to fixed plate E, carried.

spring 40, to plate 13,'wire"12, and the third" negative pole of the battery. During the process of charge the mainline 1 is broken at spring :2, whereas in discharge when the switch is moved inithe opposite direction the said main line is connected by spring2, plate 3, .wire 4, wire 5 to the negative pole of the battery. The said battery Pis connected by its opposite pole to the control-magnet K, the armature Lof which during the process of discharge remains in the back position.

When the battery' P is charged, the armature Lis drawn. forward, 'when'a current from the left-hand cell orvcells of the battery-P flows as follows: Through wire 63 to armature L, to contact-point 53, through wire 55,.through fixed plate vl9, through spring-contact 14; through "plate '18, through wire 44, to magnet B, through wire 47, through wire 48, and wire 46 to-the other pole of said cell of battery,

thereby puttin g in operation themagnet B, which throwsthe movable switch into the position shown in'Fig. 2, which movement, as

will be observed,simultaneously cuts thecir-l cuitbetween '19, 14, and 1 8 and makes a circuit'between. 16, 15, and 17, ready to againoperate the magnet A, as will be explained.

Of course it is notenecessary that the connections14 and 15 should. break the circuit at both ends. The said plates 14 and15 might, for instance,.bepermanently connected with wires 44 and 42, respectively, and the plates 17 and 18 dispensed with. p I

When the armature L has been drawn for ward by the charging of the battery P, it also turns out the gas in the burner G. In this.

case the current, passing through wire 63to armature L, passes through the front contact 53, through wire 54 to magnet J, to wire;

58,to contact-point 60, to armature (Sl,th rough wire 51, through wire 8,, through wire 0 to battery, and the armature 61 being thrownto the left cuts off the gas,simul taneously breaking the circuit through contact-point 60. When the switch 0 is thrown to the left, the

' circuits of the battery I, previously arranged 'Fig. 2.

in parallel, are shifted to series, as shownin In this case the circuit passes from line 1 to the first negative pole, as previously explained, thence through battery to first positive pole, through wire 41 spring 20, cross plates "connection 21, plate and spring35 22 to plate '11, to the next negative pole of the'battery;

from the next positive pole through wire-45,

to plate 62, to spring .26, cross connection 537,

spring 38, tozplate13, wire 12, and the next negative poleof the. battery, the final posibroken.

tact only in the position shown in .Fig. land do not make contact in the position shownfin Fig. 2, the plates 34, 37, and being higher tive pole connecting by wire 9 to.line. .It I

will "be observed that simultaneouslythepar- "al'lel' circuits of the battery'whave all-been ;;It--is'*nn derstood, of course, that the con =nections 33 36 39 -on the frame --E make iconabove-thelevel of the "plate. C than are the and 38.

- When the battery has been dischargedits potential falls :so that the armature 'L is drawn back'by its 'sprin'gtagainst 'contac'tf52,

when the circuit is completed from battery" through wire-T64, :magn'et A, wire 42', -plate I7 switch '15, plate-16, wire 48, to wire '46, to bat tery, and simultaneouslyby wire 64,magn'et H, wire 57, contact '59, armature 61,"wire 51,

wire 8, wire 9 to battery,'thereby throwing the armature 61 tojthe' right, turning on 'the '95 moving the switch to the fpositi'on .sh'ow.n"in Fig. 1 ,ready to repeatthe operation.

gas, setting the therinopilein operatiom'a'nd Itis, ofcou'rse, to be understood that the. magnet 'K is wound'with' so high resistance as to cause no substantial loss "from the bat-f teryP. The operation of the other magnets "being only instantaneous the amount of elec'-' tricity consumed'by them is very trifling.

, It is, of course, understood'that other means of operating thesw'itch'O and of construct still be within the limits ofmyinvention.

It is obvious that for some purposesfthe' switch 0 can be operated by hand. I

In Fig.5 connections are shown by means of'which thev same thermopile may be used for charging two secondary batteries. In this case the wires 50 79 lead to the second secondary battery, and the magnets J H, relays K L KL, connecting-wires, and other parts (shown in Fig. 1) are duplicated, so that when either or both secondarybatteries require charging the thermopile is put inoperation in the same manneras heretofore de-- scribed. ,VVhen both arecharged,'the gas is out 01f from both ends of the burner G inthe manner previously described'by the two elec tric lliy-operated' stop-cocks shown in Fig.5 and the thermopile ceases, its operation.

. In Fig. 7 a'full arrangement of thecircuitsshow njin Fig. 5, is indicated.

IOC

, S ing the same maybe readily devised and,

Similar letters'refer to similar circuitson h the two sides of the drawings.

What 'I claim as my invention, and-desire v to secure Letters Patent, is--'-- 1; The combination of a secondarybattery,

an automatic switch for connectingits cells inse'ries or multiple, asource of electricity connected with said switch, andniechanism poles of said battery are connected in multiple and the thermopile denergized when the reciprocating switch is at one limit of its traverse, and said poles are shifted to series and the thermopile energized when the re- I 5 eiprocating switch is in its opposite position, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

- E. N. DICKERSON.

Witnesses:

T. A. CONTANT, ANTHONY GREF. 

